


California Namin'

by HaywoodJablowme



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, it's just boyfriends being cute dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 03:16:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13918230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaywoodJablowme/pseuds/HaywoodJablowme
Summary: [Richie] waggled his eyebrows suggestively and winked.





	California Namin'

**Author's Note:**

> i wanted to practice writing short drabbles and this got a lil' away from me ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> based on [this post](http://savingprivatecrunch.tumblr.com/post/170477254894)
> 
> title is 100% a play off of 'california dreamin'" because the name was stuck in my head
> 
> thank you [lex](http://archiveofourown.org/users/alexislord/works) for being my beta for this!! xxx

"So, what's up in California?"

"Well, in my philosophy class there's a dude named Leaf and another named Kale."

Bill nodded along with what Richie was saying before his whole body froze as what his boyfriend just said finally registered in his brain. He looked up at the computer screen in bafflement, hand still in position to draw, but mind completely distracted and focused on this new tidbit of information. "W-What?" He couldn't even blame the faltered word on his stutter; it was just pure confusion.

On the screen, Richie was nodding his head absentmindedly, just like Bill had been doing. The top of his head was visible as he bent over the paper on his own desk, doing coursework for the class that he had mentioned. He and Bill were parallel to each other, doing homework together just as they would have been doing if they had been with each other in person; as if there weren't 3,153 miles between them. Well, they were parallel before Bill started staring at his boyfriend. 

Bill deliberately stayed quiet until Richie looked up from his work. When their eyes met through the camera, Bill gave him a dubious look, a raised eyebrow and all.

"What?" Richie asked, a little affronted. He dramatically turned around in his chair to look behind him before looking back at Bill with wide eyes. "What did I do to deserve that look?"

"You just s-said that you had c-classmates named Leaf and K-Kale."

Richie stuck his pen in his mouth, causing Bill to scrunch his nose up in disgust. He'd visited Richie's dormroom many times before, and who knew where that thing had been. Richie simply shrugged. He tilted his chair back to balance on its hind legs and threw his arms up in an even bigger, more exaggerated shrug when Bill only gave him another disbelieving look. "I'm not their mother!" he defended around the pen in his mouth. "I wasn't the one who decided to name them after a plant organ!"

Bill opened his mouth to retort, but Richie continued on before he could even mutter a syllable. "And that's not even all!" he bemoaned, falling forward as all four chair legs landed back on the floor. He took the pen out of his mouth and pointed it at Bill accusingly, like Bill had named these people himself. "That's just brushing the surface! There's a chick named Melon in my Biology class and, if that wasn't weird enough, in my acting class there's a completely different girl named Melon." Richie's hands were waving around elaborately as he spoke, his pen dangerously close to flying out of his hand. 

Bill finally dropped his pencil on the drawing of Richie he had been working on, instead of doing his homework like he should have been. He propped his head on both of his palms to focus all of his attention on the real thing in front of him. He watched, content, as his boyfriend continued ranting about all the crazy names that he had come across in California. It wasn't entirely Bill's fault that Richie's words were going in one ear and completely out the other; he just got so distracted by how lively Richie got. He hadn't realized just how much he appreciated how loud and present Richie's personality was, how it could completely fill up a room and embrace Bill with its presence, until Richie had moved to California.

Richie's eyes were bright as he worked himself up, the blue in them lighting up behind his glasses as he got lost in his rant. Every single strand of his curly hair bounced as he threw his head back and forth and in every direction that it could possibly go. His hands were still whipping around and emphasizing the words and thoughts of the one and only Richie Tozier. Bill noticed that they were tanner than they had been the last time Richie had visited Maine, during spring break just two weeks ago. And, while Richie's arms were bare, nothing in the universe could stop Bill from greedily tracing his usual paths along those arms, the ones that he would smother in kisses and tease with nips when they were together, with his eyes.

Before his mind could travel further down the rabbit-hole of kissing and teasing his boyfriend, Bill was snapped out of his Richie-induced daze, and tuned into what the man was saying, when his voice suddenly changed its tone from annoyed to something more friendly. "- these two dudes that I met, who're together, who seem really nice! Their names are Aristotle and Dante - weird, right? - and they're really fucking co- ," Richie cut himself off abruptly as the laws of motion and his lack of grip finally caught up to him. As he made an especially violent hand gesture, his pen flew out of his hand. Immediately, there was a loud thunk and, after a startled moment of silence, the sound of several things hitting the floor.

Richie stared at his hand like it had offended him and then looked at something off-screen, towards where the pen supposedly crash-landed, like it had tried to kill someone he loved. His brow was furrowed and his mouth was gaping open and closed, grasping for words that just wouldn't come.

Bill tried to stifle his laughter with his hand, but then Richie whispered, quietly and obviously not meant for Bill's ears, to the pen in a small, desperate voice, "Why?"

And Bill lost it.

He bit his finger accidentally in the process of moving his hand to grip at his chest, while the other wrapped around his stomach as he dissolved into loud, boisterous cackles. His chair creaked and wobbled dangerously as his body forcefully slumped back into it. He curled in on himself, legs tucked up on the cushion and bent at the knees, as he let himself go.

Bill couldn't see it with his head thrown back in laughter, but he could hear Richie's pout; and he could definitely hear his mock-offended gasp. He struggled to get himself under control and face Richie.

"Y-you s-s-sou-," Bill cut himself off, laughing even more at the pout Richie was giving him. He tried again, making an attempt to talk through the smile that was splitting his face in half. "You s-sounded so dej-jected and p-p-personally at-t-tacked."

"Bill," Richie whined, dragging out his name, rather obnoxiously. He flopped down face first on his desk, and the sound of more things falling onto the floor echoed through Bill's speakers. Richie let out another pathetic whine. He looked up at his camera with his best puppy-eyes when the noises made Bill laugh even more. "Bill, you're supposed to be nice to me; you're my boyfriend."

"I'm not s-supposed to do shit, Richie," Bill said, eyes crinkled with the force of his smile.

Richie pushed himself up so that he could rest his head on his hands and gaze fondly at Bill. He fought to keep a pouty, but stern, expression, before giving in and allowing himself to break into a wide grin to match Bill's. The grin was still on his face, even as he became distracted. He went cross-eyed as his gaze homed in on some hair that was hanging in front of his glasses, obscuring his view of Bill. He shook his head to displace his unruly hair, but that only made it worse. He eventually gave in and just fixed it with his hands, the tip of his tongue poking out of his mouth.

Bill relaxed fully into his chair and watched with contentment, as Richie tried to tame his hair. The tips of his fingers tingled with the need to run his hands through the thick, dark brown curls, to be the one to fix Richie's hair for him. Or to mess it up even more; he wasn't particularly picky about which form of physical intimacy he could get at that moment, he just wanted it. A warm sigh escaped his mouth, his head tilted to the side and eyes half-lidded as they managed to catch Richie's.

Richie paused once their eyes met, curls tangled in one hand and the other busy shoving even more curls behind his ear, tongue stuck out even further due to his deeper level of concentration. His eyes were wide, like a deer caught in headlights, but his expression quickly, way too quickly, shifted into a leer. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and winked.

"God, I love you."

Richie's leer instantly melted into a dopey grin. "I love you, too."

They smiled at each other for a while, simply reveling in the sight of the other person, before Bill smirked. "So, what are Leaf and Kale like?"

Richie buried his face in his hands and groaned.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me [on this hellsite](http://savingprivatecrunch.tumblr.com)


End file.
